Spotlight: A Graduating MBA, Ana Zivanovic by Irem Secil Reel

   
Ana Zivanovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia, but lived most of her adult life in Madrid, Spain where she completed her undergraduate degree in Hotel Management. She started her MBA degree two years ago, in September 2006. “I always considered that U.S graduate schools provide high quality education. I wanted to earn my MBA degree in the New England area, and since I was impressed by the experiences of my friends and the reputation of the University of Maine, I was pleased for the opportunity to matriculate at UMaine.”

Ana was a pioneer in researching courses for a proposed Business Sustainability Track. Her interest in earning a business degree combined with her desire to mitigate harmful effects on the environment inspired her to combine business education with environmentalism. Ana’s interests involve corporate environmentalism, environmental consulting and corporate social responsibility: “I always believed that corporations and businesses could be successful even as they attempted to implement social and environmental responsibility.”

The early idea of the corporate environmentalism was born during one of the first classes in Ana’s graduate career: “Before taking the Business Ethics class with Dr. Stephanie Welcomer, I must admit I was not aware of the complexity of issues regarding the natural environment and social responsibility in the U.S corporate arena. This class was crucial for deciding which direction to take in my graduate studies and professional career.”  With this in mind, Ana began her search for classes in different departments from Public Policy to Resource Economics and Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Meanwhile, she was talking to professors in the Business school suggesting the idea of starting a new Business & Sustainability track. When this idea recently came to fruition, Ana detailed the list of courses that allowed her to address these topics.

Ana is currently working as a research assistant with Dr. Harold Daniel and Dr. Terry Porter. As part of her assistantship with Dr. Daniel in the Center for Tourism Research and Outreach (CenTRO) Ana is currently working on a customer survey tracking project in Maine. “Working in CenTRO allows me to use and broaden the knowledge in tourism gained during my undergraduate studies, and helps me better understand the different approaches to tourism research and development.”

Ana is working with Dr. Terry Porter on the evaluation of the social acceptability of a potential forest bioproducts industry in the state of Maine: “We are particularly concentrated on secondary stakeholders such as community members, environmental groups, state officials, and NGOs. With this proactive approach we hope that this newly developing industry will better understand what issues concern secondary stakeholders.” She is hoping to be a co-author of a journal paper about the project she is currently working with Dr. Porter.

Ana highly values the knowledge she gained at the UMaine that relates to both business and the environmental protection. For this reason she promotes the new Business & Sustainability track: “I believe there is a lack of environmental education of most current and future business leaders who often think that economy and ecology are mutually exclusive. However, “business as usual” practices imply linear input-output strategies that involve extensive exploitation of natural resources. The dominant worldview that nature and the environment are valuable only to the extent they benefit humans and their wellbeing must change if we are to maintain environmentally sustainable economic growth.”

Ana is planning to gain work experience in corporate environmentalism after she graduates. She is hoping to acquire enough knowledge and experience to further pursue either a law degree in environmental law or PhD in her current area of interest.

She believes and advocates that “the era of businesses based exclusively on the neoclassical economic paradigm has passed and that as future business leaders, we need to shift our views and the mechanisms of the traditional decision-making process. In order to make sound business decisions we have to be able to understand other disciplines and cooperate with them so we can serve not only the company’ s interests, but also community and society as a whole.” 

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